Police seized more than $12 million worth of high-grade marijuana during two separate drug interdiction exercises in Tobago and Toco between Tuesday afternoon and yesterday. Twenty-nine kilos of marijuana were seized in Toco on Tuesday and another 800 kilos confiscated in Tobago yesterday. Investigators suspect the two were connected.
Two men were detained in the Tobago bust and a couple were held in Toco. The haul, police said, originated from St Vincent. Around 4 pm on Tuesday police from the Eastern Division Task Force, who had been involved in the search for missing hiker Bissoondaye Geeta Seenath, stopped a panel van on the Toco Main Road.
They searched the van and found three crocus bags of compressed marijuana. The 27-year-old driver, from San Juan, and his 31-year-old female companion, from Balandra, were held and taken into custody. Early yesterday, police from the Roxborough Police Station, the Criminal Gang and Intelligence Unit and the Divisional Task Force got a tip-off and went to an area close to the beach in Belle Garden where they found ten crocus bags of marijuana hidden in the bush.
They then headed to Englishman’s Bay and stopped a Nissan X-Trail on the North Side Road, with two occupants. The men escaped but while checking the vehicle the police found 11 more crocus bags filled with marijuana. Speaking at a news conference at the Scarborough Police Station yesterday Senior Supt Garfield Moore said the operation was part of an ongoing exercise to rid Tobago of illegal narcotics and the escalating drug trade.
“We are not going to let up because we realise that Tobago is being used as a transshipment point. Because of the information received about the amount of drugs arriving in Tobago, we want to ensure that is discouraged because Tobago is not the area we want drugs being offloaded in that quantity,” Moore said. Meanwhile, Assistant Police Commissioner of Tobago Heflin George commended the officers who made the bust, saying they went the extra mile.